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MMA is pretty tough on your mind because it's a sport that's not just about winning. You really want to win bad, but it's tough when you lose. You get beaten. And it really messes with your ego, because nobody wants to get beaten by other people physically. It's not just a game. You get beaten physically.
When I announced my retirement, that was actually when I was trying to come back and I realized, it just wasn't viable. It passed me by. My shoulder is done. I brush my teeth with my left hand now. That's just the way it goes. I can't shoot a basketball, I can't throw any kind of ball. I was right handed.
I've been victimized by general filthiness on multiple occasions... I received a nasty staph infection... I was told to wait it out... a few days later I literally thought I was going to die... I ended up being on antibiotics for five weeks and, as a result, I had to back out of the fight against Machida.
It came down to the obvious point that all the union cared about was the money and these other things certainly didn't matter enough. It's a tremendous situation that they have and it has become burdensome for the teams. Yes, we're asking for some relief going forward. I don't think that was unreasonable.
I'm in the game of spinning plates. I'm spinning a boxing plate. I'm spinning a Tae Kwon Do plate. I'm spinning a Jujitsu plate. I'm spinning a freestyle wrestling plate. I'm spinning a karate plate. If I was to put all them down and have one boxing plate spinning, it would be like a load off my shoulders.
I think a lot of people miss what I've done in the MMA world. How I was able to market and control the industry so that people wanted to watch my fights. If you look at the fights I've been involved in - in the SEG UFC, in Japan, for Zuffa and today, they have been fights that have turned companies around.
My grandfather was doing business with a Japanese man. In exchange of good relationship the man taught my uncles the art of jiu jitsu. My father couldn't do it because he was very weak, he couldn't do one press-up, so he just sat back and watched, and memorised. What he did was add leverage into the moves.
My true inspiration is to give everything to my kids that I never had. I had a really rough upbringing, and I want to break that chain. I've broken the chain, and I want to give my kids happiness every single day. When they wake up and hop on me and say; 'Dad I love you,' that is what means the most to me.
My dad was a plumber. That's hard work. He never missed a day of work. I will never disrespect him by not showing up for an athletic competition that has a maximum duration of 25 minutes. There should be forfeiture if you have to pull out of a fight. If you don't show up, it should be a loss on your record.
I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think what a waste of energy. If people want to believe in this god, or that god, that's fine by me, believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.
Using your imagination to create mental images stimulates your mind, helps organize your life and keeps your focus in a particular direction. It allows your unconscious mind to work toward the image you have created, the goal. It's about understand the life you want to live, and seeing it unfold before you.
Think about climbing a mountain. If you decide you're going up Everest, you don't start with a sprint. You'll never make it out of base camp if you do that. The secret is two fold: make sure your approach is consistent and steady so that you can maintain the progress you're making as your journey continues.
I feel for the guys in UFC who helped open the UFC up. Obviously, I'm getting blackballed there by the UFC, so I'm kind of feeling on both sides. If a promotion or somebody in that promotion decides they don't like an individual, then they get to make up the rules, and the fans don't get a say in it at all.
One of the things in marriage is you have to understand what appreciation is about, and that'll keep me for longevity. That's why my fans love me, because I appreciate them. Because with no fans, there would be no sport, no fighting for me, no UFC, no Bellator, no Rizin; there'd be nothing without the fans.
I've been through so much damn adversity, I've had so much critiqued on me. From being the undefeated world champion to never really getting the love or the respect I feel I deserved when I was on top and then finally getting knocked down and then everybody jumping on top, trying to kick me while I was down.
I think we are here to challenge ourselves and make ourselves better people and not just sit around in the world simply floating through life. You should be trying to do something great and making yourself better. You should be trying to evolve. That's what I'm trying to do, and that is very important to me.
That's the way to go. People say: 'Oh, he doesn't want to come back, he's scared,' and it's to play with your brain, to play with your mind. I'm not scared of nobody. I'm not scared of no human being. I'm scared to fight, every time I fight I'm scared, but I'll bite into my mouthpiece and I'll walk the walk.
I personally don't like eating animals. I'm not the kind of person that tries to preach to other people. But, for me, I don't feel right about doing it. That's the main reason why I stay vegetarian...I know the guys that have switched [to vegetarian] all swear by it-they say they love how it makes them feel.
If you lose three or four in a row, people start talking about retirement. They are not used to this sport like they are used to tennis. If you take a look at how many times Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer lost, it's all part of the game. Soccer is no different: teams go through bad times and then rise again.
Fighting causes you to face life head on, because you could end up seriously getting hurt, and you could hurt somebody else. It causes both people to face the reality that we are fragile beings, but it doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves in the process and punch each other in the face and have a good time.
I had my first professional fight was in 2001 in Venezuela - it was also my first international trip away from Brazil. It was a great experience. Then in 2005, I went to Finland and won. The next year there was a tournament in Brazil with three fights in one night. I was the underdog and won all three fights.
When I was scheduled to fight in Japan, and then I would come back to the United States, I would have to train, but there was nobody to train here. There was no such thing as a striker going with a grappler, or a striker going to the ground with a grappler, or a grappler standing up and fighting with a boxer.
I try to eat healthy for the most part. When I cut weight, I cut pretty much everything out. I don't have protein when I cut weight other than what I might get from something like chicken breast. So I don't eat any extra protein, just because I'm trying to get the weight off. That's the only real diet I have.
I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist, and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think, 'What a waste of energy.' If people want to believe in this god or that god, that's fine by me; believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.
Everyone says I drive like my grandfather, but that's not always a good thing because he didn't always watch the road because he'd talk to you and look at you. He was a deputy sheriff, a cop, for a long time. So he was always looking around, checking out other things, other than what's directly in front of him.
I love money, and I love movement. I like what it has let me do for my family. I have paid off my mum and dad's mortgage, I've bought them two BMWs, they can have anything they want. I am buying a fleet of cars for myself. I have unemployed my sisters, they don't need to work, don't need to worry about a thing.
I'm a guy who likes to keep fighting five, six times a year, so if I ask for too much money, they might say, 'Well, we pay you too much. We can't let you keep jumping backwards and forwards and promote it.' The money I'm making is good to keep grabbing short-notice fights. I love them; they're my favorite ones.
My dad grew up wrestling. He knew Ken Shamrock, and I didn't know who he was at the time. So, he found out that Shamrock was in a gym in Reno, and he wanted me to go try a class with him. I tried it and fell in love the first day. Ken told me that I had potential in this sport, and he's the reason I kept at it.
My phone rings, they call me up and say, 'Chael, your testosterone level is too high.' I say, 'Well, how high was it?' They say, '0.7.' I said, 'What's normal?' They say, '0.6.'; I said, 'One-tenth? You're telling me I'm one-tenth higher than the average man? Re-test that - you must have caught me on a low day.'
Karate is my main martial art; that is what I train in every day. It has always been in my life. Sumo is another Japanese martial art that I got into at an early age. It is something that has helped and added to my overall stance and is a good base. It is not something I necessarily use in all my fights, though.
For the most part, since the time I was in EliteXC fighting, maybe there were one or two fights here and there that they had me to win, but for the most part I've been an underdog. I'm not a kickboxer so I'm going to lose to a kickboxer. I'm not a wrestler, my wrestling sucks, so I'm going to lose to a wrestler.
The kind of hope I'm talking about is the belief that something good will come. That everything you're going through and everything you've gone through will be worth the struggles and frustrations. The kind of hope I'm talking about is a deep belief that the world can be changed, that the impossible is possible.
I'm gonna write a book. I'm going to explain over the past 30 years of my life of things that I endured and what I went through. And when I do, I promise you with everything that I am that people will not believe me. But I have factual proof of everything that has happened to me, and I have been able to overcome.
I started kinda late with wrestling in high school, and I wasn't doing so well - I lost my first five matches in a row, and my little brother said 'wear this chain for good luck... ' and told me it might intimidate some of my opponents. Sure enough, when I wore the chain I went all the way to the regional finals.
The best way to take a punch is to look at it. Honestly. Someone could hit you with the hardest punch that they have, but as long as you see it, it's not going to knock you out. It's the punches that you don't see that knock you out. So you could get tapped with a small punch, but if you don't see it, you're out.
Conor McGregor has a beard because of me, because I'm the one who allowed it. If it wasn't for me, none of these guys would have a beard. The same thing with the belly. Fighters who don't look like bodybuilders wouldn't be in the UFC if it wasn't for me. There's a lot of things I've definitely paved the road for.
I like guys who know how to implement a strategy. The ones who make a fight look easy. But there's no easy fight, even if you win in 30 seconds, that only means you were able to execute your strategy correctly and induced your opponent to make a mistake. Those are the champions. That's why they are the champions.
The thing to me about this sport, all the fans, everyone that watches, everyone that has a career has had a bad day at work. If you have a project, you have a quota that you have to meet, you can screw up at it. At the end of the day, you get to go home to your family; you can bring your work home with you or not.
I did what sports were supposed to be like, and I was living in my car. So you know what, fine. I'm gonna talk a bunch of sh*t. I'm gonna pose in a couple of pictures. And I'm gonna break a couple of girl's arms, and I'm not gonna feel the least bit sorry about it because you know what? At least I can feed my dog.
I had a really dark time after the Olympic Games... But then I said to myself, 'This is a sport that's blessed me with a home, with an education, with some money. I can't hate this sport. This sport took me out of Louisiana. This sport gave me a chance when so many people don't get a chance. And I love this sport.'
I've been very fortunate to be at the startup of a lot of different things. I was the startup of the Pancrase organization in Japan. Became a big figure over there. Then I was in the UFC and was at the startup of that, and I was a big figure in that. Twice. Not only in the beginning but also when it was taken over.
I only have so much ring time that my body can endure. I've had four surgeries on my knees, arthritis in my neck, separated my shoulders, broken my nose. I'm just gonna hope that science advances faster than I can deteriorate. Because what am I gonna do? Put a perfect body into the ground? What's the point of that?
My goal is to go out there and dominate. We all know if I'm in a position and I see my opponent hurt by landing good striking, I'm going to try to get him out of there. If I'm in the top position or in the position to finish by submission, I'm going to look for that. I don't feel the need to prove the haters wrong.
From the beginning of my days, it comes right back down to my parents. Raising all the kids. They really taught me principles of hard work, honesty and integrity. Those are the things that will always carry with you. My brother and I carry on those qualities that my parents have taught us. It helps keep me in check.
I will tell you what, the Rock was my nemesis. We did enough for each other; we put each other over to be famous. If we didn't have that feud with each other, we wouldn't have had the success we both had in pro wrestling. We really did build each other. I'm very thankful we had those opportunities and those matches.
People like to talk a lot about me, about how I have anxiety or social disorders. I'll admit to anxiety, but it has nothing to do with media or being in front of a camera or being around people. It has to do with dealing with the sparring that I'm going to have or the workouts that I'm going to have from day to day.
I spent the whole first year of my career just on my legs. If you have good legs under you, then you can punch. Anybody can stand and throw their hands and look like an idiot. If you actually want to learn how to punch, you have to work on being balanced on your legs and feeling your legs under you. Feel the ground.
My father was a very tough guy with me and my brothers. He wanted to teach us a lot of discipline and life philosophy. As I became more interested in martial arts, he started teaching a lot of fighting philosophy and karate philosophy. While he was a tough father, he also knew when to be sweet and show a softer side.
It's called 'Fight Valley,' and it's my first feature film. I just dove in and did the best I could. I don't think I'm gonna win any Academy Awards on this one. I had fun with it and hopefully will get more opportunities like that. It's about two sisters, one poor and one rich, and one goes into underground fighting.
I'm training at Phase 1 Sports in Las Vegas, and it's a very high-end training facility for a lot of top-level athletes. I have been able to add a lot of power and the endurance to keep that power going. I've always been powerful, but the muscle conditioning I've been able to add has been a tremendous amount of help.